“Seychelles is not a tax haven” Bobby Brantley

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Seychelles security exchange Trop-X, Bobby Brantley says he has absolutely no doubt that the robust financial laws of the country makes it difficult for anyone to use the country through offshore companies as a tax haven.

The chief executive officer of Trop-X was adamant about it: it is quite difficult for offshore companies to use the country through offshore companies to dodge taxes. Mr Brantley was speaking to TODAY following revelations made in the Panama papers – the leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca disclosed by a German newspaper late last week. Seychelles, along with some other small countries were named as favourite places billionaires use as tax havens.

However, Mr Brantley said that "by the very definition of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of what is a tax haven, Seychelles is certainly not one.” He added that there were four main criteria that must be present in a country to be a tax haven and “at least two do not apply to Seychelles in all cases, and depending on the types of structures and applications, there are cases where all four are not applicable.”

Regarding the accusations by the Panama papers that Mossack Fonseca might have helped clients to launder dirty money in offshore companies, Mr Brantley said the risk exists. But he said it was important to note that this is bound to happen anywhere. “But to launder money you have to move assets and assets aren’t coming through banks in Seychelles. There are very low risks in terms of money laundering. The banks have to know all the beneficiaries. They’re very strict about any kind of sizable transactions coming in or going out of a bank account,” he said. Mr Brantley reckoned that ‘Seychelles would be a terrible place for international criminals to launder money.”